Craig, however, added that the current strengthening of the
U.S. dollar could end up as a headwind to actual dollar growth
in the fiscal year.

OUTLOOK BEATS

Accenture forecast full-year earnings of $3.80-$3.88 per
share, above analysts' average expectations of $3.76 per share,
according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

It forecast full-year revenue growth of 7-10 percent, which
implies a range of $27.3-$28.05 billion, according to Reuters
calculations. This was on the higher end of analysts' average
expectations of $27.43 billion.

"We have seen this with Oracle and this (forecast) seems to
affirm that IT enterprise spending remains strong," Josh Olson,
technology analyst for Edward Jones said by phone.

"It looks like their core growth strategy has good momentum
in both geographies and segments," the analyst said.

For the first quarter, Accenture forecast revenue to be in
the range of $6.8-$7.0 billion, ahead of analysts' average
estimates of $6.7 billion.

The company also increased its semi-annual cash dividend 50
percent, to 67.5 cents per share, and approved $5 billion of
additional share repurchase authority.

Shares of the company were up 3 percent in trading after the
bell. They closed at $53.65 on Tuesday on the New York Stock
Exchange.
(Reporting by Bijoy Koyitty and Siddharth Cavale in Bangalore;
Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila)